Systematic defects are known to occur during the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including semiconductor chips. Identifying these systematic defects and correcting them is essential for the efficient, cost-effective manufacture of reliable semiconductor devices.
Identifying pin/bits (hereinafter “bits”) that tend to fail together and the chips having those failing bits is useful in identifying such systematic defects, but the very high volume of data involved in making such identifications currently requires a level of testing and analysis that renders known methods both time-consuming and expensive. Some methods involve a bit-by-bit comparison between chips, which becomes prohibitive when dealing with a large number of chips. Known methods are also ineffective and/or inefficient in identifying rare systematic defects that may be caused by a frequently-used design feature, but which only rarely causes failures in the same location. Identifying such rare defects may require an analysis of hundreds of thousands of chips, a prospect prohibited by known methods of defect identification.